Method and apparatus for making rug yarn



y 0, 1963 c. J. HAYNES 3,099,064

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING RUG YARN Filed April 15, 1961 a 5" 9% l2 9 a" i 5 1' Q u l x 1 2 5 A I-1,-.? & 6 7' 2' i if 2' 7 ll Spinning Cabinets 60092! Rolls Crimper 34 Dryer I 35 .Snrinlrah'eaf Set Draft 8 Relax 3/ in/sI; Zone ml/cater Ta Packaging CARL .1 HA rive-s I NV EN TOR.

BY WMM ATTORNEYS United States Patent This invention relates to a novel method and apparatus for making a synthetic yarn. More particularly, this invention concerns a modacrylic yarn which has been processed in a certain manner to render it especially suited for needle tufting'into chenilles and rugs.

In the prior art tufted rugs have usually been made from staple fiber spun into yarn. Or the rugs have been made frorncontinuous filament yarns which have been treated by a so-called texturising or bulking process which substantially increases the bulk or volume of the yarn and puts a large number of loops thereon. While the aforementioned types of yarn may be made into rugs of pleasing appearance because of the soft, fiufiy nature of such yarn there has been a tendency for rugs made therefrom to catch dirt and mat when heavy objects are placed on the rug. It has also been proposed to make yarns for rugs and the like use by procedures involving hot water shrinkage. However, such method is not readily applicable to certain type yarns as acetate yarns, acrylic yarns and others which exhibit a resistance to water shrinkage.

Therefore it is apparent that the developmentof certain new forms of yarn useful for rug manufacture represents a highly desirable result. As known in the rug industry there is a need for a type of yarn which will provide more cover with less Weight of yarn and with less tendency to matting than is available in currently produced yarns. After extended investigation I have discovered a new type of yarn together with a simple and economical process and apparatus for its manufacture.

This invention has for one object to provide a process and apparatus for use in the treatment of certain continuous filament man-made yarns to render such yarns more useful in the manufacture of rugs and other similar objects made from such yarn. A particular object is to provide a process andapparatus especially adapted for the processing'of modacrylic fibers to render such type of fibers useful for rug manufacture and other purposes. A further object is to provide a process and apparatus arrangement whereby a plurality of ends of untwisted yarn may be treated in a single crimper and the ends exitingfrom the crimper may be readily separated into the individual ends for packaging or use. Still a further object is to provide a novel type of yarn resulting from the foregoing process of treatment. Other objects will appear hereinafter.

As indicated above, a number of the prior art fibers while in a processed state exhibiting a soft, pleasing appearanc when made into rugs or for comparable use tend to mat when objects are placed thereon. Prior methods of producing such flutfed and softened fibers have involved the handling of a single end of yarn throughout the process. This handling of a single end of yarn may add to the expense of the yarn production which presents cost problems in the highly competitive field of the manufacture of yarn. In the broader aspects of my invention 1 have found that several bands of 'manmade filaments, as distinguished from natural fibers exemplified by wool and cotton, may be processed in a certain controlled manner in a jet. The yarn issuing from the jet as treated by my invention may then be followed by group crimping in a single crimper. Even though 3,99,04 Patented July 30, 1963 "ice the yarn of the present invention is group crimped in a single crimper my yarn may be readily separated into individual ends as it is discharged from'the crimper. I have found the method of treatment herein described to be particularly useful on modacrylic fibers. These fibers are made from compositions comprised of for example -85% acrylonitrile modified with various modifiers. Further disclosure of such type fibers may be had by reference to US. Patent No. 2,811,409.

For a more complete understanding of my invention reference is made to the attached drawing forming a part of the present application.

FIG. 1 is a side elevation view of one type apparatus assembly that may be used for carrying out my process.

FIG. 2 is likewise a side elevation view of another apparatus assembly particularly an assembly which would be used when processing modacrylic fibers.

Reference is now made to FIG. 1. Conventional dry type spinning cabinets 1, 1, andl" \are shown spinning ends of yarn 2, 2, and 2". These spinning cabinets may be of any usual dry Spinning equipment, construction for processing yarn consisting of a plurality of individual filaments of suitable denier and cross-sectional shape. In other words the yarn may be spun with a regular clover-leaf cross section or specialcrcss sec ion such as Y and C yarn may be spun. The denier per filament may be within the range of 1 to 20 and the total denier within the range of 250 to 10,000. The particular construction of FIG. 1 is for spinning cellulose ester spinning solutions.

The several yarn ends 2, 2, and 2 after issuing from the spinning cabinets pass in contact with lubricantrolls 12, 12', and 12" picking up a suitable amount of lubri-' cant and then pass around Godet rolls 3, 3', 3" to the jets 4, 4', 4". The special, controlle'd'treatment'in the jet will be described in detail hereinafter. It appears sufficient at this point to indicate that the lubricant applied and the manner of application may be as set forth in US. Patent No. 2,807,864 of my co-worker. Also'the jet construction may be as in said patent or the jet-construction may be as in Patent 2,921,868 of another of my co-workers.

The yarnends thus processed then pass around idler rolls 5, 5', and 5 and output rolls 6, 6', and 6". Such rolls, as will be described in more detail hereinafter; are operated at a certain speed with reference to the input of the yarn to the jet so that'only a controlled amount of processing occurs on the yarn Within the jet; The processed yarn'then passes through the guides 7, 7, 7" through a reedcr comb guide 8 to a stufiing box type crimper 9. It will be observed-that the several'ends of yarn are fed as a group to the'single crimper.

While in FIG. 1 only three cabinets have been illustrated the number of cabinets or number of individual ends-of yarn may be for example trom 2 to 100. In other words the present invention is not restricted to feeding only three ends of yarn into a-single crimper. I have found that my method of processing the yarn permits feeding, for example, up to ends of yarn into a crimper if this is desired and withoutcorn-plications of the individual yarn ends losing th'eir identity. This-is thought to be novel in that heretofore in the prior art it has been considered somewhat necessary to utilize a single crimper per end of yarn, otherwise the yarns became inextricably tangled.

The crimper may be of the stufling box type where two opposing rolls under pressure force the several yarn ends into a chamber with a constricted exit causing the yarn to be folded and packed on itself to form a crimp. Inasmuch as such type crimping devices are described in detail in a number of US. Patents as 2,115,313, 2,- 156,723, 2,187,567, 586,052 and 1,353,337 extended description of crimpers appears unnecessary. However, in certain instances I prefer to use a crimper having one or more of the features, grooved crimper feed plates, grooved crimper rolls and compartmental crimper for individual ends. Such construction as a grooved plate comprises individual rounded grooves or lanes for each yarn end from the jets.

The several ends of crimped yarn emerging from crimper 9 may be readily separated from one another and passed through comb or reed 10 to further use or packaging. Or some or all of the ends may be passed to other uses such as baling, ball warping 11 or the like. In general I would prefer to pass the ends of the yarn treated by the present invention to a baling process as a convenient way of packaging. It is apparent from the foregoing explanations that since the several ends have not lost their individual identity they may be packaged in a bale. However, the several individual ends may be beamed or wound on a bobbin if this is desired.

, Attention is now turned to FIG. 2 which in a number of parts is the same as the corresponding parts already described with respect to FIG. 1.

The spinning cabinets and 21 may be dry spinning equipment the same as the spinning cabinets of FIG. 1. As is known, certain modacrylic fibers may be dry spun from spinning compositions containing acetone solvent in a manner similar to the dry spinning of cellulose ester compositions.

The filaments, as at 22, emerging from the spinning cabinet pass in contact with a lubricating roll as indicated at 18 and 19 where a suitable lubricant is applied. The particular agent applied is not a limitation on the present invention. The filaments then pass around a Godet roll as at 23. The filaments are then passed around the group of rolls 24, 25, 26, and 27. This group of rolls together are designated as a draft and relax zone. Modacryl fibers are stretch oriented from 200 to 600% by operating rolls 24 to 27 at suitably different speeds to accomplish the amount of stretch orientation desired in the yarn. Also some of the rolls are heated a temperature within the range of 90 C. to 200 C. so that the yarn may be stretched. While I usually uniformly heat all the ends, this may be varied. For example, one end may be heated to a difierent temperature than the end next to it to attain certain additional efiects. Also a so -called false twist may be imparted to the ends before the jets on the crimper. The yarn then passes between feed rolls 31 through the jet 32 and into the take-up rolls 33 which feed the processed yarn into crimper 34.

The jet and roll arrangement just described is substantially similar to that already described in connection with FIG. 1. However in this particular modification the jet may be positioned somewhat in line with the yarn movement rather than at an angle thereto as shown in FIG. 1. In any event, as in FIG. 1 the yarn passing through the jet is subjected to a controlled treatment so that while the yarn is altered in the jet there are negligible or no loops put on the yarn. Any small amount of loops are of a versed sine configuration. However, in general the processing of the yarn in the jet is such that an untwisted or slightly twisted, uncharacterized yarn as fed into the jet is recovered from the jet as a yarn which has an individual identity and will not become readily mixed or entangled with other ends of similarly treated ends of yarn. In further detail the yarn resulting from the processing of the present invention even if intimately associated with other ends of yarn still maintains its separate end identity and can be separated from other ends of yarn even in a bale or package. This is in contrast to prior art yarns which not 'only have had numerous loops on the surface but which presented problems of entanglement when too intimately mixed with other yarn ends.

The crimped yarn 35 emerging from the crimper is discharged onto an endless conveyor 36 where it is subjected to drying and heat action from the hood 37. After passing along the conveyor it is removed from the conveyor at 38 to packaging or other use. At some suitable place as at 39 the yarn is sprayed with lubricant or the like finishing agent.

The operation of my process is apparent to a substantial extent from the proceeding apparatus description. However the following further general description will give an added understanding of my process in its broader aspects. Referring to FIG. 1 several ends of yarn are spun in spinning cabinets 1, 1, and 1". The exact number of cabinets will be determined by the number of ends of yarn it is desired to process. Also the shape and denier of the yarn from each cabinet will be determined with respect to the particular product that is to be made from the yarn. The manner of spinning the yarn in the cabinets may be conventional, hence extended description of this portion of the process is unnecessary.

The ends of yarn 2, 2', and 2 are passed around Godet rolls '3, 3', and 3" in the usual manner after applying the yarn treating agent from 12, 12', and 12". As indicated above one suitable treating agent to apply is that disclosed in said Patent No. 2,807,864.

In accordance with FIG. 1 the several ends of yarn from the Godet rolls are passed through the several jets 4, 4, and 4". The jets may be of a construction as shown in Patent 2,924,868. Such jets have the advantage that air or other similar gas may be impinged against the yarn going through the jet in a non-swirling manner. However the jet construction referred (to permits the gas to act upon the yarn in a manner that my untwisted yarn has the several filaments, so to speak, tucked into the interior of the yarn thereby making a distinct product which evidences the new properties of not readily entangling with other ends of yarn as may occur if several ends of the so-called textured or lofted yarn are closely intermingled.

Therefore in the present invention it will be noted that the yarn going through the jet is not subjected to action that materially volumizes or loops the yarn. To the con trary the input speed and the output speed are controlled relatively the same so that no or a negligible amount of shortening of the yarn occurs. Any loops that may inci dentally form on the yarn as indicated above are of a versed configuration thereby distinguishing the present yarn from prior art looped yarns. It has been found that treating the yarn in the jet at a speed of take-up approximately commensurate to the speed of or slightly lower than the input speed produces yarn which when subsequently crimped may be made into rugs with good results. These details will be more apparent from the description which follows.

In addition to the treatment in the jet being different from prior art treatment I have found as already indicated that such treatment in the jet permits all of the several ends of the yarn to be fed through a single crimper thereby providing a more economical process than where separate crimpers have been heretofore required for each end of yarn.

Therefore still referring to FIG. 1 the several ends 2, 2', 2" after passing through guides 7, 7', and 7" and the comb guide 8 are passed into the single crimper 9. The combination of the jet treatment with the crimping produces a yarn especially suitable for rugs as will be noted in more detail in connection with the examples which follow. This yarn while having utility without crimping is preferred in its crimped form. As pointed out above the yarn emerging from the crimper may :be separated into its individual ends through the guide 10 and conducted to packaging or other utilization.

A still further understanding of my invention will be had from a consideration of the following examples which are set forth to illustrate certain preferred embodiments.

Example I In accordance with this example the composition spun in cabinets 1, '1, and 1" was a conventional cellulose acetate spinning composition. Details concerning the denier, the rateof feeding to the jet, the air pressure used and the like were as follows:

Yarn denier 4,800 to be processed.

Filaments 400, 12 d./f. C cross section.

Agent applied 1/4% chemical (shown in Head Patent 2,807,864).

Godet roll speed 125 m./m.

Jet air pressure 40 p.s.i.

Output roll speed 100 m./m-.

Yarn loops if any Versed sine type.

Yarn denier after processing.. 5',0005,400.

Crimper speed 102 m./m.

Crimps in yarn 9 per inch.

Output speed of crimper 80 m./m.

Eight ends were separated and wound onto a section beam and processed into a cut pile tufted rug having eight stitches per inch and a needle gage of inch. The rug sample when finished 'had superior cover and appearance to rugs of equal construction made from a ls count acetate staple yarn or a prior art volumized 5,300 uncrimped yarn.

While I do not wish to be bound by a theory of operation the reason for the improved cover is thought to be as follows: The added feature of crimp in any yarn causes it to be very stretchy or elastic under light loads. As the yarn passes through the needle tufting machine it is placed under considerable tension fluctuation, i.e, cycles of high and low tension. This flexing of the yarn causes the filaments to bloom out from each other and be held apart because the crimps and any versed s ne loops in the filaments tend to get out of phase and hold the filaments apart. The crimps are not completely removed in the process and therefore continue to act in the rug imparting resistance to matting.

Example II In accordance with this example the yarn produced was modacrylic product spun in an apparatus generally in accordance with FIG. 2. The spinning solution comprised of 2030% of the modified acrylic polymer dissolved in acetone. The yarn spun from spinning cabinets 20 and 21 under various periods of operation was of total denier of 1800, 2200 and 2700 and of a denier per filament of 13-14. The individual yarn ends from the several spinning cabinets were kept separate and were passed over and around the several rolls 24, 25, 26, and 27. Preferably these rolls, or at least two of the rolls are 2-4 feet in diameter. With such larger rolls I have found there is sufficient surface contact and friction to prevent the yarn from slipping so stretching may be accomplished. Also this is aided by positioning the rolls in the manner shown. The yarns were drafted to the order of 400-500%. The rolls were maintained at temperatures between approximately 90 and 150 C.

The individual yarn ends were passed through rolls, as shown at 31, to the jet 32. In this particular example since there were yarn ends, 10 jets were used. The treatment in the jet was carried out so that the withdrawal speed from the jet was only about 3% slower than the input of the yarn to the jet. The air supply to the jets, which were of a non-swirling type, was in the range of 5 to 75 p.s.i.

The yarn emerging from the jet and picked up by rolls 33 still had an appearance similar to the initially produced yarn but had of the order of 3% internal entanglement. The several ends of yarn were conducted through a crimper to impart about 9 crimps per inch in the yarn. The crimped yarn was discharged onto a conveyor where it went through a heat chamber at approximately 100- sweaters, blankets and the like.

6 C. which served to further set the crimp. The resultant yarn which-was both jet treated and crimped was discharged at 38 for packaging.

This yarn from Example I-I, while untwisted as produced, after processing was of asuit-able character to be used for manufacturing rugs and other articles such as The yarn exhibited good covering power and resisted matting when heavy objects were placed on the products made therefrom; this an peared to be due to the better resiliency imparted to the yarn by the jet treatment =followed by crimp which crimp is placed out-of register in the manufacturing operations. Also because of the substantial absence of external loops the yarn resisted the entrapment of dirt.

The present invention is particularly useful for the processing of modacrylic yarns of a denier per filament of .2 to 20 and a total denier of 250 to 10,000. However the present invention may be used on other manufactured fibers such as the continuous filament cellulose ester yarns of Example I, polyester yarns, andpolyamide yarns. It may be used 'on either natural, white or colored yarns. The white yarns "are prepared from spinning compositions which contain the filament-forming polymer titanium dioxide and solvent. Colored yarns may be made by dispersing the coloring pigments, such as a black pigment in a small amount of cellulose acetate also containing titanium dioxide and acrylonitrile polymer. This concentrate is milled by three or more rollings on an ordinary two-roll mill. In a similar manner blue pigment may be dispersed in a cellulose acetate base.

A certain amount of titanium dioxide, antimony oxide and modacrylic polymer are mixed together in a solvent as acetone by ball milling. This last mentioned dispersion together with the blue and black dispersions :are then mixed with a large amount of a modacrylic dope in solvent. For example a few percent of the above concentrated dispersion are mixed with 20-30% of the modacrylic polymer, balance solvent, to give a colored spinning composition which contains in addition to the several pigments, the acrylonitrile polymer, modifiers and 4 to 10% cellulose acetate. Other colors may be prepared in a similar manner. I have found that such colored compositions very readily spin into yarns and may be processed by the above process and apparatus with equal facility to uncolored or white yarns.

Although the invention has been described in considerable detail with particular reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, variations and modifications can be efiected within the spirit and scope of the invention as described hereinabove, and as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. The method of continuously processing several ends of multifilament yarn, which yarn ends have low twist if any twist therein, which comprises continuously subjecting the several yarn ends to gas blowing in jets, the rate of withdrawal of the yarn from the jets being not substantially slower than the rate of yarn feed to the jets and in any event not more than 20 percent slower, the gas treatment in said jets being at a gas flow of 5-75 p.s.i., passing at least some of the several ends thus processed in the jets to further yarn treatment which involves compacting the several ends of said processed yarn in close and intimate association, withdrawing said ends from the compacting, and separating at least some of the ends from one another.

2. The method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the compacting includes bringing the several ends together in close association in a stuffing box crimper.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the multifilament yarn is made up of filaments having a C-type cross section.

4. The process of producing a continuous filament yarn particularly useful for the manufacture of rugs which comprises spinning a spinning composition containing from 40-85% .acrylonitrile, collecting said filaments into several yarn ends, heat stretching said yarn ends 300- 600%, passing the yarn ends through separate jets, the

stantially the same 'as that of the speed of the yarn fed into the jets and not more than 20% slower, subjecting the yarn in the jets to treatment with non-swirling gas flow at 5-75 p.s.i., passing several yarn ends from said jet treatment into and through a single orimper wherein the several ends are orimped, withdrawing from the c'rimper the yarn thus treated, separating the yarn ends thus processed and packaging them.

5. Apparatus for making rug yarn comprised of a pinrality of means for spinning yarn-forming compositions into rnultifilament yarn, several jets in series with the spinning means for receiving yarn ends from the spinning means, a plurality of rolls of several feet in diameter interposed between the spinning means and the jets for stretching the yarn 400600% before passing the yarn into said jets, means for supplying non-swirling :gas into the jets, means for conducting the several yarn ends to a single crimper in seriw, and means for withdrawing several ends of said yarn from said crimper.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Hey-mann Feb. 13, 1945 Mummery July 3, 1945 Getaz Feb. 5, 1946 Rosenstein et a1 Aug. 16, 1955 McLellan Aug. 23, 1955 Miller Sept. 10, 1957 Head Oct. 1, 1957 Reynolds et a1 Apr. 1, 1958 Finlayson et a1 Apr. 22, 195 8 Breen Sept. 23, 1958 G'riset Feb. 24, 1959 Slayter et al Dec. 1, 1959 Spence et al Dec. 22, 1959 :Field Dec. 6, 1960 Fenland Q Sept. 19, 196 1 Breen et al Nov. '21, 1961 Bottorf May 8, 1962 Cook 'et a1 May 29, 1962 

1. THE METHOD OF CONTINUOUSLY PROCESSING SEVERAL ENDS OF MULTIFILAMENT YARN, WHICH YARN ENDS HAVE LOW TWIST IF ANY TWIST THEREIN, WHICH COMPRISES CONTINUOUSLY SUBJECTING THE SEVERAL YARN ENDS TO GAS BLOWING IN JETS, THE RATE OF WITHDRAWAL OF THE YARN FROM THE JETS BEING NOT SUBSTANTIALLY SLOWER THAN THE RATE OF YARN FEED TO THE JETS AND IN ANY EVENT NOT MORE THAN 20 PERCENT SLOWER, THE GAS TREAT- 